HEDGES. 109 



Dedham and elsewhere in the county; hut to give a detailed 

 notice of them would be impossible within the limits prescribed 

 for this report. The attention of your committee has been 

 directed particularly to hedges of the arbor vita?, which possess 

 some very decided advantages over all others. They are beau- 

 tiful through the year. In winter, it is true, they lose their 

 decidedly green color and assume a slightly brownish tint. 

 But still they are beautiful; while the buckthorn, with the loss 

 of its foliage, loses its whole beauty. There are few objects 

 in ornamental grounds on which the eye lingers with more 

 pleasure than on the thick, massive, and seemingly impenetra- 

 ble foliage of a well-cut arbor vitas hedge. 



It is an advantage attending this material, too, that the 

 plants can be readily trained to any height almost one chooses, 

 from that of the common hedge to fifteen or twenty feet or 

 more, when a screen of that height is needed to conceal objects 

 unsightly to the eye. Careful and proper clipping, however, 

 is necessary, whether the plants stand alone, or are grouped in 

 clusters, or arranged in the line of a hedge, else the branches 

 will grow straggling and lose a great part of their beauty. 



A hedge of arbor vitae is, of course, subject to injury from 

 cattle, which must be carefully kept from it. From its delicacy 

 and susceptibility to injury, too, it does not answer well on the 

 roadside, where passers by are liable thoughtlessly to pluck 

 branches from it — thus making holes, or giving it a ragged ap- 

 pearance, from which it may be some years in recovering. 



There is no particular difficulty in rearing an arbor vitas 

 hedge if it can be secured against depredation from the horns 

 of cattle and from human hands. The tree is very tenacious 

 of life, and the expense of setting and rearing the hedge is very 

 little greater than is required to rear one of other materials, the 

 buckthorn or prim, for example. It was formerly thought that 

 the plants, which may be obtained in abundance from the for- 

 ests of New Hampshire and Maine, must be transferred from 

 the forest to the nursery before being used for a hedge. But 

 experience shows that, if taken up and packed with due care, 

 this is unnecessary. Hedges formed from plants brought di- 

 rectly from the forest will succeed very well with proper treat- 

 ment. 



